1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a likeness drawing apparatus for combining a plurality of regions of a face and creating a portrait, wherein parts of respective regions are, not merely deformed, but fine additional drawing is possible and deformation after the addition drawing is possible.
2. Description of Prior Art
Conventionally, in likeness drawing apparatuses, regions of a face, such as eyes, a nose, and a mouth, registered beforehand are combined and thereby a portrait is created.
Facial expressions in portraits or animations can be changed, while displaying images, according to JP 7-262399 A (1995) ( a first prior art). Concretely, when changing the expression of a color portrait, a basic image is firstly created by using a plurality of closed curves without colors, according to the first prior art. Subsequently, the boundary and inside of each of the closed curves forming the created basic image are painted out to form a color basic image. Subsequently, while watching this color basic image, the operator alters a selection number and selects deformation information. A closed curve of the basic image is deformed according to the deformation information. Subsequently, the deformed closed curve is painted out with a color. As a result, the expression of the color basic image is changed. Simply by having closed curve data, color data, and deformation data for changing the expression of the portrait, the expression of the portrait can be changed.
In the first prior art, the facial expression formed by combining parts of respective regions can be changed by forming closed curves corresponding to respective regions of the portrait, selecting colors within the closed curves, and painting out insides of the closed curves with the colors.
Furthermore, as a second prior art, a montage creation apparatuses are disclosed in JP 8-44894 A (1996), JP 8-44896 A (1996), and JP 8-44898 A (1996). An object of the second prior art is to make it possible to represent a wink and so on without increasing the capacity of the memory and without hampering the display quality even at the time of expansion and compression, further to make it possible to select a pattern without dividing the operator's image, and furthermore to make it possible to compare facial patterns to be selected.
Concretely, the montage creation apparatus described in the second prior art comprises: storage means for storing a plurality of patterns for each of parts of a face, such as hair, eyes, a nose, and a mouth; selection means for selecting a desired pattern of a desired part from the storage means; and montage image display means for displaying a montage image on a screen on the basis of the selected pattern or on the basis of outline data of the selected pattern; the selection means is characterized in that as regards paired left and right parts such as eyes and ears. Here, the selection means is formed so as to be switched to an independent selection mode for selecting only one of a pair or a simultaneous selection mode for selecting both of the pair simultaneously. Here, the selection means comprises: arbitrary point specification means for specifying an arbitrary point on a picture displaying the montage image; part discrimination means for discriminating a part corresponding to the specified point on the basis of a correspondence relation between a point specified by the arbitrary point specification means and a display position of each of parts forming the montage image; and selection start means for bringing the part discriminated by the part discrimination means into such a state that the pattern selection can be started from the storage means.
According to the first prior art, however, a closed curve cannot be formed easily especially in hair, eyebrow, eye contour, or the like. Furthermore, the inside of the closed curve is painted out with one color. When the closed curve is large, the expression of the portrait changes drastically and hence it is difficult to obtain a portrait having a fine facial expression. On the contrary, when the region of a closed curve is fine, it takes a lot of time to create the closed curve.
The second prior art aims at effectively selecting parts stored in the storage device, when creating a montage. Since only parts selection is conducted, representation of fine expression of a portrait depends upon data stored in the storage device. Furthermore, alteration of the expression or edition after selection of parts is not taken into consideration.